Adjustable screen-door



(No Model.)

W'. HUGHES.

ADJUSTABLE SCREEN DOUE.

No. 394,651. Patented Dec. 18, 1888.

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'UNITED STATES PATENT OEEicE.

VILLIAM HUGHES, OF MINERVA, OHIO.

ADJUSTABLE SCREEN-DOOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters latent No. 394,651, dated December 18, 1888.

Application filed August 1, 1888. Serial No. 281,665. (No model.)

T0 all whom b may concern.:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM HUGHES, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Minerva, in the county of Stark and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Adjustable Screen- Doors, of which the following is a specificae tion, reference being had therein tothe accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to adjustable screendoors; and it has for its object to produce doors of this class which will be capable of adjustment to fit openings of various sizes.

The invention will iii-st be described in connection with the accompanying drawings, and then pointed out in the claims.

1 Figure 1 is a front elevation, partly broken out, of a door expanded to full width and showing' the auxiliary screen in position. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of a door adjusted t0 its narrowest limit and without the auxiliary screen. Fig. is a vertical section of the door, taken on the line .r fr, Fig. l, looking in the direction ot' the arrow. verse section of the door, taken on the line y y, Fig. ll. ary screen.

Referring to the drawings, A A are the Fig. Je is a trans.

Fig. is a plan view of the auXilithe other rails of the door.

rigid side rails of the door, which are made the lengt-h ot doors of the largest size common in dwellings, the distance apart at which they are framed together permitting t-hem to come within about half an inch of covering the width of the smallest common-sized doorways. I prefer to make rail A about iive inches in width and one inch in thickness, and rail A about one inch in width and three-quarters oi' an inch in thickness.

B B represent the cross-rails, of the saine general thickness as rail A and mortised into the side rails, rail A coming tlush on the rear or inner side with the other parts of the door, the upper crossrail, B, being placed at a height suitable for the smaller-sized doors. The cross-rails are reduced to the same thickness as rail A for a short distance inward from said rail bybeing cut away on the front side, leaving a shoulder, s, and in this reduced portion, and for several inches beyond the shoulder, there is cut a channel, c, for a purpose hereinafter explained.

C is the wire-cloth screen, secured in grooves in the frame, preferably near the rear side, in the ordinary manner.

D represents a sliding side rail, which is of L shape in cross-section and made, preferably, by nailing together two wood strips, l and 2, in such manner as to bring the outer edge ot' the former tlush with the outer side of the latter, the width of strip l being equal to the width of side rail A, and the width of strip 2 equaling the thickness of rail A'. Strip l is slotted transversely at 3 3 and is loosely attached to rail A by means ot' headed screw-threaded studs i, passing through the slots and through the said rail, and nuts 5, screwed onto the studs. IVhen in place, the sliding side rail D passes freely over the side rail A and the adjoining ends of the crossrails B B until arrested by the shoulders s on the latter, in which position the strip 2 of rail D, which is about one-half inch thick, will be brought close against the outer side of side rail A', thus widening the door that much and covering the full width ot' the smallest common-sized doorway, and as I make the strip l about one-quarter of an inch thick the sliding side rail will lie flush with It will be evident that. by means of this sliding side rail the door can be adjusted to any greater width within the limits ot' the length of the slots 3 3.

For the purpose of steadying the sliding rail in its movements, and also for relieving strip l of said rail from a portion of the strain at the inner ends ot' the slots when the sliding rail is adjusted at. its outer limit,I secure arms d to the under side of said strip, which arms are of a size to fit neatly in the channels c in the cross-rails and corresponding channels (not seen) in the side rail A', and of a length to reach considerably beyond the shoulders s in the cross-rails, one side of each of these arms being cut out, as at o', so as to leave a shoulder, 7, which rests against a stop-pin, S, in each cross-rail.

In United States Letters Patent No. 374,187, granted to me on the 6th day of December, 1887, I illustrated and described an auxiliary screen designed to be used With doors larger than the smallest. This screen consisted of a cross-rail constructed in two pieces, one of IOO said pieces being tongued on its inner side and the other correspondingly grooved, the pieces being held adjustably together by headed bolts and screw-threaded nuts, the bolts passing through a hole and a slot in each piece, and attachedtoeach piece was a strip of wire-cloth long enough toextend slightly beyond the middle, so that when the crossrail was extended to its full width the meeting ends of the strips would slightly overlap. That auxiliary screen was adjusted in the side rails at the proper height for a door of the desired length and the wire-cloth was trimmed off at the bottom, so that itwou'ld just rest on top of the top cross-rail of the door.

Instead'of constructing the auxiliary screen yas above stated, I now make the screen-rail E in one piece of the same length as crossrails B B', and tenon the ends, as at e, to

' adapt rail E to slide in grooves g, cut in the siderrails, which grooves extend some distance below the upper cross-rail, B, which is slotted its `whole length, as at l), the glooves being larger l'above said rail than below it, as their lower portion is designed to receive the Wirecloth, F, which is provided on three of 4its edges with a thin metal binding, f, its upper edge being secured to the screen-rail E in any suitable manner.

As before stated, in the manufacture of these screen-doors VI make the side rails,A A 1),'of a length Vsuitable for the l( rgest doors in common use, and then when a door smaller than that size is required I adjust the auxiliary screen-rail Ein the grooves g in the side rails A A at the proper height for a door of the'desired length and out oft' the rails A A 'D on a line Ywith the upper side of the auxiliary'screen-rail, Athe screen F passing through the slot b in cross-'rail B and resting in the lower zportion of grooves g. The door can then be vadj Listed as to Width bymeans of the. v"sliding rail D, `as above explained.

Having thus described my invention, what and cross-rails B B', rigidly framed together,

and a screen secured in said frame, rail A' being narrower and thinner than rail A, and one end of each of the cross-rails reduced to the thickness of rail A' and provided with guide-channels, of the L-shaped sliding side rail provided with laterally-extending arms engaging' said channels, whereby the sliding rail is adapted to slide over rail A' and over the reduced ends of the cross-rails, substantially as described.

2. The combination, with side rails, A A', the latter narrower and thinner than the former, and cross-rails B B', provided with guidechannels, rigidly framed together,and a screen secured in said frame, of the L-shaped sliding side rail slotted at top and bottom, as described, headed bolts passed through said slots and through rail A, said sliding rail being also provided "with laterally-extending arms, each having' a shoulder near its outer end and engaging said channels, and a stoppin in each cross-rail in front of the shoulder on the arm, substantially as described.

3. rlhe combination, with the grooved side rails, A A', and the cross-rails B B', rigidly framed together, the rail B being slotted vertically its Whole length, and a screen secured in said frame, of the L-shaped sliding side rail adj u'stably secured to railA', a rigid auxiliary cross-rail, and a screen attached to said rail, the auxiliary cross-rail being secured in the grooves in rails A A' above cross-rail B, and its screen passing through the slot in said cross-rail and overlapping the fixed screen,

substantially as described.

In testimonywhereof I affix .my signature in presence ot' two witnesses.

XVILLIAM HUGHES. lVitnesses':

JOHN F. JEROME, J. B. MARSHALL. 

